The New Leitz - Wetzlar Leica M6 (and the dreaded film scratching issue)

[BradS]

After two years of rumors, wild speculation and intense market buzz, It is finally here.

https://leica-camera.com/en-US/photography/cameras/m/m6

I like it. It reminds me of my first M6....looks just like it without the quirks.

Nice work Leica!

 

[Oldwino]

It’s a nice looking camera, with (it seems) some improvements over the original.
The rumor sites got two things wrong - it is not limited, and it is not cheap.

 

[faberryman]

Will the MP remain in the line or be retired? If retired, it could be resurrected in a couple of years as a 25th Anniversary model.

I note the metering in the new M6 has been upgraded from two LEDs to three.

 

[BradS]

It’s a nice looking camera, with (it seems) some improvements over the original.
The rumor sites got two things wrong - it is not limited, and it is not cheap.

I think that it is a very good thing that it is or will be a regular production item.
Price is all relative, of course.
It looks like this new M6 costs about the same as one months rent on a studio apartment in Sunnyvale (and that was back in 2019 when I was still living and working there).

 

[Oldwino]

I could see them dropping the MP and the M-A. They could reissue the M4 next.

 

[faberryman]

It looks like this new M6 costs about the same as one months rent on a studio apartment in Sunnyvale (and that was back in 2019 when I was still living and working there).

I guess I just need to move to Silicon Valley to be able to afford a Leica, although with those rental prices I'm not sure I could afford groceries too, so I would have to juggle my priorities. Here is an interesting figure: the average American renter pays $1326 a month, so for an average renter the new Leica M6 is more like four months rent. I don't know; perhaps I have been anesthetized to Leica prices after years of exposure. The price sort of doesn't sound that bad. Of course, you still have to buy a lens. I think TT Artisan has some deals.

 

[David Lindquist]

5295 United States Dollars per the Leica Store, San Francisco: https://www.leicastoresf.com/new/le...vXA&utm_content=230511496&utm_source=hs_email

David

 

[Saganich]

An MP in an M6 body? I guess the angled rewind, front moniker, and red dot were missed. Looks like parts for both new M6 and MP should be available for a while anyway.

 

[bags27]

It ain't the initial capital outlay, it's the ongoing expense that kills ya.

In real terms, the camera costs 400 rolls of Tri-X

 

[otto.f]

On paper it’s better than the old M6, which I sold after having bought it new, because, coming from an M4, I found it a bit vulnerable with the zinc top. And although I might have been a bit picky in the old days, compared to an M4 that was true. So now they finally listened to me and changed the top plate with messing, GREAT! I might even swap my M10-R for it. I’d have preferred the larger shutter dial from the M6TTL and M7, but ok, I might go loving it on a longer run, because it give this old M4 feeling. I look forward to the anti-flare coatings, which might mean a step forward after the MP

 

[mshchem]

The price of nearly everything these days is crazy. 5 grand seems about right for this camera. No way it could sell much cheaper. It's a beautiful looking machine.

Is it paint??

 

[madNbad]

The price of nearly everything these days is crazy. 5 grand seems about right for this camera. No way it could sell much cheaper. It's a beautiful looking machine.

Is it paint??

It the same coating Leica uses on the M11. Harder than paint but more environmentally friendly than black chrome.

 

[otto.f]

I could see them dropping the MP and the M-A. They could reissue the M4 next.

Right! The MP and M-A were not my cup of tea anyhow, prefer the wind lever of the M4 and up much more

 

[otto.f]

In real terms, the camera costs 400 rolls of Tri-X

With a mean of 20 films per year would that be 20 years of pleasure, which digital M will deliver that? The thing is that once bought a digital camera, you‘re in a canal of buying every new version of the original model with more pixels. With film you might be in a canal of trying every newly hyped film, but in the end that’s a cheaper kind of GAS.

 

[gone]

In real terms, the camera costs 400 rolls of Tri-X

Hmmmm. Would I like to have 400 rolls of Tri-X film, or a camera? You know, this is really not a hard decision!

 

[Patrick Robert James]

I really don't get this. Why go backwards instead of forwards? Release a camera that is an evolution of the M7. Totally not interested in this one. I'd love to buy a new Leica but it has to make sense.

 

[AgX]

It reminds me of my first M6....looks just like it without the quirks.

On paper it’s better than the old M6, which ... I found it a bit vulnerable with the zinc top. ... So now they finally listened to me and changed the top plate with messing. .... I’d have preferred the larger shutter dial from the M6TTL and M7. I look forward to the anti-flare coatings, which might mean a step forward after the MP.

So, for those ignorant on M-details: we are just talking about (to me) minor changes of details?

 

[Oldwino]

I really don't get this. Why go backwards instead of forwards? Release a camera that is an evolution of the M7. Totally not interested in this one. I'd love to buy a new Leica but it has to make sense.

Every time Leica has pushed things forward, they get grief. The M5 was the most radical change, and it almost bankrupted the company. The M7 was a tiny turn towards new technology, and no one bought it.
Even the M3 caused consternation among Leica screw mount users, so much so that Leica continued to make the screw mount bodies for years after the M3 was released.
Leica users are somewhat rigid in their acceptance of the “new”.

 

[mshchem]

M7 is a beautiful camera. Leica will be the first to admit more electronics, less sustainable. The M6 family of cameras can work fine without a battery.

 

[Oldwino]

Leica will be the first to admit more electronics, less sustainable.

Ummm...Every digital Leica seems to be sustaining the company just fine.

 

[mshchem]

Ummm...Every digital Leica seems to be sustaining the company just fine.

Excellent point! I have a digital Leica, if my experience with Nikon digital is a guide, my digital Leica will be a nice door stop in another 15 years

 

[chriscrawfordphoto]

I guess I just need to move to Silicon Valley to be able to afford a Leica, although with those rental prices I'm not sure I could afford groceries too, so I would have to juggle my priorities. Here is an interesting figure: the average American renter pays $1326 a month, so for an average renter the new Leica M6 is more like four months rent. I don't know; perhaps I have been anesthetized to Leica prices after years of exposure. The price sort of doesn't sound that bad. Of course, you still have to buy a lens. I think TT Artisan has some deals.

Moving to Silicon Valley to afford a Leica reminds me of choices my son had to make when he graduated from college in 2020. He has a computer science degree from Purdue. A local company offered him $45,000 a year to start, and I advised him to take that job instead of trying to get a job at one of the big tech companies in Silicon Valley. Why? Because the cost of living is so low in Indiana and so high in Silicon Valley that $45,000 a year would give him a better life here than the $100,000 he'd make to start out there.

In Fort Wayne, he bought a house last year for $95,000. It is a two story 2500 sq. ft. house on a half-acre yard in a middle class neighborhood. His house payments are $600 a month. In Silicon Valley, a one bedroom apartment would cost him $5000 a month and he would not own it. That's $60,000 a year just for rent! In addition, taxes are higher in California, his Federal income tax would be higher because his higher income would put him in a higher tax bracket. Utilities are more expensive there, and so is everything else because the insane real estate costs and higher taxes force businesses to charge more money.

He's gotten several raises in the last two years and now makes $60,000 a year. As a bonus, he only works 40 hours per week while Silicon Valley tech company employees work insanely long hours. He could actually afford one of those new M6 cameras and he could pay cash for it because he is able to save a lot of his income. In Silicon Valley he would be too poor to do so despite earning twice as much!

 

[Steven Lee]

@chriscrawfordphoto The CS majors from Purdue who live in Silicon Valley and work at top tech companies put aside $100-200K a year in savings (averaging, it's less in the beginning and much more later on). Many end up saving $2-4M and moving back to their home state to retire before 40. I don't even know any 40+ year old CS majors in Silicon Valley who are not millionaires. Here's a very typical conversation in a Silicon Valley centric early retirement forum.

 

[mshchem]

I've never lived in California, but I've visited plenty of times. It's a pretty sweet place. I live in my home state of Iowa, real estate isn't cheap here but it's probably 1/10th what it is in California.

I have a very good friend, lives near Evansville Indiana. About 15 years ago he bought a property, about 17 acres. He had a nice 3 bedroom home built, no basement, a bit of a brick on the front. Paid cash, always lived frugally. Had a nice pole barn put up to keep his dirt bikes and 4 wheelers in. He was cut from his job probably 10 years ago. He rents 15 acres to a neighbor, my friend's share from his little 15 acres, more than pays his property taxes and insurance.

He could buy a dozen of these new Leicas. Still southern Indiana, which is a beautiful place, ain't California

 

[Huss]

But the babes in Cali man, the babes....